Second Circuit rejects George Santos' copyright suit against Jimmy Kimmel
Source: Courthouse News Service
September 15, 2025
MANHATTAN (CN) — Former Republican congressman and convicted fraudster George Santos can’t bring a copyright lawsuit against ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel over the “Will Santos Say It?” late-night segment, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
Santos sued last year after Kimmel created fake profiles on Cameo, a short-form video platform that lets users buy personalized videos from celebrities, to request outlandish clips from Santos and airing them on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
In affirming a lower court’s dismissal of the case, a Second Circuit panel rejected Santos’ argument that Kimmel acted in bad faith, thus nullifying his ability to publish the clips as fair use.
“It is true that ‘[f]air use presupposes good faith and fair dealing,’” the three-judge panel wrote in a 10-page ruling. “But Santos’ complaint contradicts any claim of a purpose on the defendants’ part to ‘supplant’ Santos’ ‘commercially valuable right in the videos.’”
Read more: https://courthousenews.com/second-circuit-rejects-george-santos-copyright-suit-against-jimmy-kimmel/
Link to original District court RULING (PDF) - https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/santos-kimmel-opinion-order.pdf
Link to Appellate Court RULING (PDF) - https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/george-santos-jimmy-kimmel-second-circuit-ruling.pdf
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York, NY (Andrew Mancilla, Mancilla & Fantone, LLP,
New York, NY, Joseph W. Murray, Great Neck, NY, on
the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellant.
NATHAN SIEGEL, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP,
Washington, DC (Eric J. Feder, Davis Wright Tremaine
LLP, Washington, DC, Raphael Holoszyc-Pimentel,
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, New York, NY, on the
brief), for Defendants-Appellees.
